100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock 🇳🇿

Overnight NZ-wide Delivery 🚀 Thank you for supporting our 100% NZ-owned store ❤️

The Time Machine

A Norton Critical Edition
Series: Norton Critical Editions
0.0 (0 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is a groundbreaking work of science fiction that follows an inventor's journey far into the future. As he ventures out with his time machine, he encounters a world drastically changed, populated by both the idyllic Eloi and the ominous Morlocks. The novel explores themes of social division and human evolution while questioning the progress of civilisation.
Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3299
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 3-4 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you're fascinated by the concept of time travel and enjoy exploring imaginative tales that challenge our perception of the past and future. This enthralling narrative offers a glimpse into a dystopian future, combining adventure, social commentary, and philosophical reflections, which may captivate readers interested in speculative fiction.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

The Time Machine (1895) is H. G. Wells’s first published novel as well as his most enduring and influential work.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Intrigued by the possibilities of time travel as a student and inspired as a journalist by the great scientific advances of the Victorian Age, Wells drew on his own scientific publications—on evolution, degeneration, species extinction, geologic time, and biology—in writing The Time Machine. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first London edition of the novel. It is accompanied by detailed explanatory annotations and "A Note on the Text."

Backgrounds and Contexts is organised thematically into four sections: "The Evolution of The Time Machine" presents alternative versions and instalments and excerpts of the author's time-travel story; "Wells's Scientific Journalism (1891–94)" focuses on the scientific topics central to the novel; "Wells on The Time Machine" reprints the prefaces to the 1924, 1931, and 1934 editions; and "Scientific and Social Contexts" collects five widely read texts by the Victorian scientists and social critics Edwin Ray Lankester, Thomas Henry Huxley, Benjamin Kidd, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), and Balfour Stewart and Peter Guthrie Tait.

Criticism includes three important early reviews of The Time Machine from the Spectator, the Daily Chronicle, and Pall Mall Magazine as well as eight critical essays that reflect our changing emphases in reading and appreciating this futuristic novel. Contributors include Yevgeny Zamyatin, Bernard Bergonzi, Kathryn Hume, Elaine Showalter, John Huntington, Paul A. Cantor and Peter Hufnagel, Colin Manlove, and Roger Luckhurst.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Series: Norton Critical Editions

View all
  • The Arabian Nights
    Few works of literature are as familiar and beloved as The Arabian Nights. Yet few remain also as unknown. In English, The Arabian Nights is a literary work of relatively recent date—the first versions of the tales appeared in English barely two hundred years ago. The tales are accompanied by a preface, a note on the text, and explanatory annotations....
    Paperback
    $4799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Alice in Wonderland
    This Norton Critical Edition includes: The texts and original illustrations from the 1897 editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass as well as the 1878 edition of The Hunting of the Snark. Revised and updated footnotes, headnotes, and introductory materials by Donald J. Gray. Selections from Carroll's diaries, letters, and other source materials examining three distinct periods...
    By Lewis Carroll
    Paperback
    $4199
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Time Machine
    Intrigued by the possibilities of time travel as a student and inspired as a journalist by the great scientific advances of the Victorian Age, Wells drew on his own scientific publications—on evolution, degeneration, species extinction, geologic time, and biology—in writing The Time Machine. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the first London edition of the novel. It is accompanied...
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Secret Agent
    This Norton Critical Edition includes: - The first English book edition of the novel (1907), accompanied by explanatory footnotes. - Four illustrations. - Contemporary sources that informed Conrad's writing of the novel, including newspaper accounts of the "Greenwich Bomb Outrage," articles from the anarchist press, earlier fictional treatments of the Martial Bourdin case (the inspiration for Adolph Verloc), and important...
    By Joseph Conrad
    Paperback
    $3399
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Mill on the Floss
    The text of The Mill on the Floss, based on the 1862 third edition for which Eliot made her last revisions, has been annotated to assist the reader with obscure references and allusions. Backgrounds includes fifteen letters from the 1859-69 period centring on the novel's content and composition; Brother and Sister (1869), a little-known sonnet sequence; and eight Victorian reviews...
    By George Eliot
    Paperback
    $3599
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Portrait of a Lady
    This Norton Critical Edition includes: The New York Edition of the novel, accompanied by Michael Gorra's introduction and explanatory footnotes. Background and contextual materials centering on James as a writer, The Portrait of a Lady in revision, and reviews of the novel by James's contemporaries. Seven important critical essays, chosen for their accessibility. A Chronology and Suggestions for Further Reading....
    By Henry James
    Paperback
    $4199
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The House of the Seven Gables
    This Norton Critical Edition includes: The first edition of the novel, published in 1851 by Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. Robert S. Levine's insightful introduction, revised headnotes, expanded explanatory footnotes, and note on the text and annotations. A generous selection of carefully chosen primary materials—three of them new to the Second Edition—intended to provide readers with essential backgrounds on the novel's...
    By Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Paperback
    $3799
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Pilgrim's Progress
    Briefly imprisoned for preaching without a license, John Bunyan is believed to have begun writing the most famous Christian allegory, The Pilgrim's Progress, while in jail. The Pilgrim's Progress was published in 1678 (Part I) and 1684 (Part II). Edited and annotated with the student reader in mind, this Norton Critical Edition is the indispensable guide to the language, allusions,...
    By John Bunyan
    Paperback
    $4299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Coquette and The Boarding School
    Hannah Webster Foster's two major Early American works with a wealth of primary materials are now available in a Norton Critical Edition. Published anonymously in 1797, Hannah Webster Foster's The Coquette grabbed American interest with its ripped-from-the-headlines story of sex and scandal. A steady bestseller for decades, the seduction novel was passed down through generations; indeed, its heroine became better...
    By Hannah Webster Foster
    Paperback
    $3699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Conjure Stories
    Fourteen conjure tales by one of America's most influential African American fiction writers. This Norton Critical Edition of The Conjure Stories arranges the tales chronologically by composition date, allowing readers to discern how Chesnutt experimented with plots and characters and with the idea of the conjure story over time. With one exception, the text of each tale is that of...
    By Charles W. Chesnutt
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Blithedale Romance
    This Norton Critical Edition of The Blithedale Romance is based on the Centenary Edition of the Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne, widely considered the best available edition. It is accompanied by explanatory annotations to help readers with Hawthorne's many historical and literary references, as well as with other possible sources of difficulty in the text. The section on "Contexts" is thematically...
    By Nathaniel Hawthorne
    Paperback
    $4699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks
  • The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man
    Known only as the "Ex-Colored Man," the protagonist in Johnson's novel is forced to choose between celebrating his African American heritage or "passing" as an average white man in a post-Reconstruction America that is rapidly changing. This Norton Critical Edition is based on the 1912 text. It is accompanied by a detailed introduction, explanatory footnotes, and a note on the...
    By James Weldon Johnson
    Paperback
    $3699
    Available
    Ships in 3-4 weeks

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells is highly praised for its pioneering exploration of time travel, blending compelling storytelling with thought-provoking social commentary. Reviewers often highlight Wells's imaginative vision of the future and his skillful depiction of different eras and societies. While some mention the book's dated style, it is generally considered a classic of science fiction, lauded for its insightful critique of human nature and technological progress.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780393927948

Publisher: WW Norton & Co

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 July 2017

Country: United States

Imprint: WW Norton & Co

Edition: Critical edition

Contributors:

  • Edited by Stephen Arata

Audience: Tertiary education

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 241g

Pages: 288

Collections

Fiction General Fiction H.G. Wells Literary Fiction Series: Norton Critical Editions

About the Author

Stephen Arata is Mayo Distinguished Teaching Professor and Associate Professor of English at the University of Virginia. His books include Fictions of Loss in the Victorian Fin de Siècle and editions of William Morris’s News from Nowhere and George Gissing’s New Grub Street.

Also by H. G. Wells

View all
  • The Invisible Man
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. "I beheld, unclouded by doubt, a magnificent vision of all that invisibility might mean to a man – the mystery, the power, the freedom." Griffin, a stranger, arrives at the local inn of an English village, entirely shrouded in bandages. Forbidding and unfriendly, he confines himself to his...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $1200
    Elsewhere:
    $1299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The War of the Worlds
    A beautiful new edition of the science-fiction classic, soon to be a major BBC drama. For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive. When an alien capsule lands on Horsell Common, Woking, crowds of astonished onlookers gather. But wonder soon turns to terror when...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The War of the Worlds
    A stunning clothbound edition of Wells' science-fiction classic. Part of Penguin's beautiful hardback Clothbound Classics series, designed by the award-winning Coralie Bickford-Smith, these delectable and collectible editions are bound in high-quality, colourful, tactile cloth with foil stamped into the design. From the planet of war they came to conquer the Earth... The night after a shooting star is seen streaking...
    By H. G. Wells
    Hardback
    $3600
    Elsewhere:
    $4000
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The War of the Worlds: Popular Penguins
    The night after a shooting star is seen streaking across the sky, a cylinder is discovered near London. Armed with just a white flag, the locals approach the mysterious object — only to be burned alive by heat-rays as horrific, tentacled invaders emerge. Soon, the whole of human civilisation is under threat, as powerful Martians move across the land in...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $1500
    Elsewhere:
    $1599
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Island of Doctor Moreau
    Adrift in a dinghy, Edward Prendick, the single survivor from the good ship Lady Vain, is rescued by a vessel carrying a profoundly unusual cargo—a menagerie of savage animals. Tended to recovery by their keeper, Montgomery, who gives him dark medicine that tastes of blood, Prendick soon finds himself stranded upon an uncharted island in the Pacific with his rescuer...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $2100
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • HG Wells Classic Collection
    Five of the best science fiction novels by the Grandfather of Science Fiction: unsurpassed in their timeless capacity to thrill and transfix, these are tales that reach to the heart of human ambition, fear, intelligence, and hope. The Time Machine The War of the Worlds The Island of Doctor Moreau The Invisible Man The First Men in the Moon
    By H.G. Wells
    Hardback
    $7700
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Time Machine
    The new paperback series - Penguin English Library The Penguin English Library Edition of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 'Great shapes like big machines rose out of the dimness, and cast grotesque black shadows, in which dim spectral Morlocks sheltered from the glare' Chilling, prophetic, and hugely influential, The Time Machine sees a Victorian scientist propel himself into...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $2199
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Great Science Fiction
    An omnibus of all four of the greatest science-fiction novels of H. G. Wells. In the space of less than four years, H. G. Wells (1866-1946) published four of the most influential, original, and hair-raising works of science-fiction. In a life of tireless experiment, travelling, and intellectual engagement, Wells was both a leading public figure and one of the great...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $3300
    Elsewhere:
    $3700
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The War of the Worlds
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. For a time I believed that mankind had been swept out of existence, and that I stood there alone, the last man left alive. When a strange, meteor-like object lands in the heart of England, the inhabitants of Earth find themselves victims of a terrible attack. A ruthless...
    Paperback
    $999
    Available
    Ships in 1 week
  • Men Like Gods
    HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Welcome to Utopia. When Mr Barnstaple, an Earthling, is accidentally transported to Utopia with a group of others, he begins an adventure that will change how he views the world forever. Utopia has no government. Utopia has no religion. People are governed only by their own conscience and...
    Paperback
    $1299
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Christina Alberta's Father
    In the months following his wife's death, Mr. Preemby, a retired laundryman, becomes convinced that he is the incarnation of Sargon, the ancient king of Sumeria, returned to save a world upturned by the First World War. Trying to make sense of Mr. Preemby is his stepdaughter, Christina Alberta. A masterclass in comic invention, Christina Alberta's Father depicts characters who...
    By H. G. Wells
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Time Machine
    A Victorian scientist and inventor creates a machine for propelling himself through time, and voyages to the year AD 802701, where he discovers a race of humanoids called the Eloi. Their gently indolent way of life, set in a decaying cityscape, leads the scientist to believe that they are the remnants of a once great civilisation. He is forced to...
    By H.G. Wells
    Paperback
    $1699
    In Stock
    Ships today

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people — but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    By Sarah A. Parker
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Mistake
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    By Kristin Hannah
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Legacy
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from the Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Legacy now for the much-anticipated answer to the question: Where are they now? Four stories. Four couples. Three years of real life after graduation . . . A wedding....
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Deal
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Deal now for the perfect fake-dating romance! She's about to make a deal with the college bad boy . . . Hannah Wells has finally found someone who turns...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    Land
    Inspired by the mapping of Ireland in the mid nineteenth century, Land, the new novel from the author of Hamnet, is at once intimate and epic: a portrait of a family navigating a legacy of upheaval and loss with love and hope. On a windswept peninsula stretching out into the Atlantic, Tomás and his reluctant son, Liam, are working for the great...
    By Maggie O'Farrell
    Paperback
    $3199
    Elsewhere:
    $3799
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all